and dennis kucinich and tom romer -- tim romer, both came to this committee to try to get something done there. it was not all cotton candy and rainbows. people at least were working together to try to reach a reasonable conclusion. here in indiana, as a state legislator, i have seen governor daniels be a get-it-done governor. i remember the first meeting with governor daniels came to our caucus. i had been in the general assembly for two years. some of the members were saying, bir going to balance the budget here in two years or four years. governor daniels walk in the room and said we would balance it in one year. that was the most important leadership decision of his tenure. if we keep that principle in mind -- he had some challenges, but as he has said often, people are fair minded. if you make the right decisions for the right reasons and the results come from that, the politics and campaigning will take care of itself. i think there are a lot of lessons in that for what needs to be done in washington. >> mr. messer, to bring it back to the current fiscal cliff talks -- during the c